Surrealism: Desire Unbound, First Major Exhibition of International Surrealism in More Than Twenty Years, Documents Revolutionary Movement That Openly Addressed Sexuality in Art

The exhibition has been organized by Tate Modern, London.

"Guided by an unwavering belief that love, desire, and freedom of the imagination were the salvation of humanity, the Surrealist vision was expressed in some of the most provocative works of art of the 20th century," commented Philippe de Montebello, Director. "This is a groundbreaking exhibition that may both challenge and delight the visitor by the breadth, richness, and frankness of its images."

Surrealism embraced not only art and literature, but also psychoanalysis, philosophy, and politics. The Surrealists aimed to liberate the human imagination through an aesthetic investigation of desire—the authentic voice, they believed, of the inner self and the impulse behind love. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), one of the movement's earliest precursors as well as one of its first proponents, initially reflected on how to express desire in art around 1912, and throughout his career he continued to make eroticism the central theme of his work. Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), whose interest in dreams and groupings of seemingly disparate objects (which would later become Surrealist hallmarks) is also regarded as a precursor of the movement. The focus on dreams and desire reflected, in part, a familiarity with the writing of Sigmund Freud, the influential founder of psychoanalysis and a theorist who identified the sexual instincts and their sublimation as factors central to the development of the individual and of civilization as a whole. The intensity of the Surrealists' commitment to a broad, uncensored vision of human nature helped sustain and define the movement from its birth in the 1920s to its demise in the late 1950s.

"The exhibition brings together many masterworks by icons of the Surrealist movement as well as stellar works by lesser-known artists," said William S. Lieberman, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Chairman of Modern Art at the Metropolitan. "Even more compelling is the central theme, the great force—desire—which inspired art that pulses at the boundaries."

Such Surrealist luminaries as Man Ray (1890-1976), Max Ernst (1891-1976), Joan Miró (1893-1983), André Masson (1896-1987), René Magritte (1898-1967), Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), and Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) will be represented, as well as artists not so widely known. The exhibition will include works by several women artists—such as Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Dorothea Tanning (b. 1910), Leonora Carrington (b. 1917), and others—some of whom have been largely overlooked in previous surveys. Also featured will be examples of Surrealist writings about love and desire in an illuminating selection of rare and original books, manuscripts, letters, and other documentary materials.

Among the highlights of Surrealism: Desire Unbound will be The Invisible Object (Hands Holding the Void) (1934, cast ca. 1954-5, The Museum of Modern Art, New York). This beckoning sculpture by Alberto Giacometti captivated André Breton (1896-1966), the leader of the Paris-based Surrealism group, who saw it in Giacometti's studio and wrote about it extensively in his revolutionary texts. In Breton's evocation of the work, The Invisible Object encapsulates the dynamics of the Surrealist encounter—the desire to love and be loved, the potential prelude to amorous and erotic experience, the impulse to make contact and at the same time maintain distance. The Robing of the Bride (1940, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice), by Max Ernst, is a theatrical and rich narrative painting evocative of witch trials of the Middle Ages. The universal, mystical symbolism in Men Shall Know Nothing of This (1923, Tate, London), Ernst's image of a copulating couple floating in mid-air, suggests inexplicable ritual and alchemistic design that both generates and suppresses eroticism.

The Rape (1934, The Menil Collection, Houston), Rení Magritte's meticulously painted image of a woman's face depicted as a female body, also suggests ambiguous sexuality; it was seen as a key Surrealist work by Breton. Always her own favorite subject, Frida Kahlo used her image in scenarios that were vibrantly symbolic and naïve, unfettered by either the realism of Mexican muralists or the formal concerns of modernism. Her 1940 Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) is an angry and forlorn expression of retaliation against Diego Rivera, to whom she was married, divorced, and remarried. In this depiction, painted during a time of their separation, she has cut off the long hair he loved, and stripped herself of feminine adornments except for her earrings and shoes. The shorn hair multiplies and spreads across the landscape as if alive.

Following a love affair with Leonora Carrington and his subsequent marriage to Peggy Guggenheim (a collector of Surrealist works), Max Ernst met Dorothea Tanning in 1942. Surrealism: Desire Unbound includes a self-portrait that Tanning had painted on the occasion of her 30th birthday, in which she portrayed herself standing at the nexus of a labyrinth of open and closed doors, bare-breasted yet semi-clothed. A winged creature resembling a griffin crouches at her bare feet. The painting suggests discovery and flight. Tanning and Ernst later married and lived together in Sedona, Arizona, and Paris, France; she now lives in New York.

The mingling of love and a demanding, sometimes aggressive sexuality is perhaps nowhere better or more disturbingly shown than in the work of Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), whose Surrealist photographs explore sensual pleasure and psychic anxiety through pictures of large, specially-constructed dolls. Darker aspects of desire are also evoked in works by Surrealist masters Joan Miró and Roland Penrose (1900-1984), among many others who remain remarkable not so much for their openness in sexual matters as for their refusal to allow love to be divorced from eroticism. In their portrayals of encounter, desire, and carnality, the Surrealists continue to facilitate ways of seeing the world anew.

At the Metropolitan, Surrealism: Desire Unbound is organized by William S. Lieberman, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Chairman of Modern Art, with the assistance of Anne L. Strauss, Assistant Curator.

The exhibition was previously on view in fall, 2001, at Tate Modern, London, where it was curated by Jennifer Mundy, Senior Curator, Collections Division, Tate, with consultants Dawn Ades and Vincent Gille. The accompanying catalogue, Surrealism: Desire Unbound (2001, Tate Publishing Ltd) was edited by Mundy, and it includes her essay as well as essays by other scholars. It will be available in the Metropolitan's book shop in December for $65 (clothbound), $55 (paperback).

The Museum plans to offer a wide variety of public programs in conjunction with Surrealism: Desire Unbound, including a series of works on film, a form of artistic expression favored by many artists associated with the movement. Luis Buñuel's seminal Surrealist film Un Chien Andalou (1929) will be shown on Saturday, April 20, along with Jean Cocteau's 1930 Blood of a Poet (Le sang d'un poète). These and other Saturday screenings held throughout March and April will take place at 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the Metropolitan's Uris Center Auditorium. The Metropolitan Museum is also scheduling a series of documentary films about artists including Arshile Gorky, Joseph Cornell, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst. For more information about films and screening times, the public may call (212) 570-3710.

Dawn Ades, Professor of Art History and Theory, University of Essex, will deliver a lecture titled "Surrealism, Sex, and the City" on Sunday, February 10 at 3:00 p.m. in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. On Friday, March 1, Edward Sullivan, Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts, New York University, will discuss the influence of Latin American artists within the Surrealist movement. This program will take place in the Uris Center Auditorium at 6:00 p.m. Both programs are free with Museum admission. In addition to these programs, the Museum plans weekly poetry readings and gallery talks.

An audio tour, part of the Metropolitan's Key to the Met Audio Guide, will be available for rental at the entrance to the exhibition ($5, $4.50 for members).

The Key to the Met Audio Guide program is sponsored by Bloomberg News.

Surrealism: Desire Unbound will be featured on the Metropolitan Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org.

November 26, 2001

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